People
Group retreat to Michigan, September 2025.
Top row, left to right: Xi, Harshvardhan, Philip, Ale, Marcos, Swadhina,
Michael, Wolfgang. Bottom row: Kaushik, Oliver, Sonia, Jasper. Missing: Sam,
Abdullah, Jia Jia.
PI
Wolfgang Pfaff
Associate Professor of Physics
Email: wpfaff
PhD, TU Delft 2013
MSc, Univ. of Regensburg 2009
Current lab members
Postdocs
Xi Cao
Postdoc since 2021
Email: xicao
PhD, Pitt 2021
BSc, Wuhan University 2014
Wei Ren
Postdoc since 2026
Email: weiren
PhD, Minnesota 2026
BSc, Lanzhou University 2019
Graduate students
Ale Baptista
Grad student since 2020
Email: aeb7
BS, Harvey Mudd 2018
Michael Mollenhauer
Grad student since 2020
Email: mcm16
BS, UT Austin 2020
Sam Cross
Grad student since 2020
Email: jscross3
BS, Tulane 2020
Abdullah Irfan
Grad student since 2021
Email: irfan3
BS, Lahore Univ. of Management Sciences 2021
Sonia Rani
Grad student since 2021
Email: soniar2
MS, IIT Bombay 2020
BS, Univ. Delhi 2018
Philip Kim
Grad student since 2023
Email: jk101
MS, TU Delft 2023
BS, Yonsei Univ. 2021
Jasper Bradford
Grad student since 2023
Email: jasperb3
BS, Utah 2023
Kaushik Singirikonda
Grad student since 2023
Email: ks105
BTech, IIT Bombay 2023
Oliver Wolff
Grad student since 2023
Email: owolff2
BS, Johns Hopkins 2023
Harshvardhan Mantry
Grad student since 2024
Email: hmantry2
BS, UIUC 2024
Swadhina Das
Grad student since 2024
Email: das33
MS, IIT Bombay 2024
Jia Jia Hodgson
Grad student since 2025
Email: emh10
BS, Indiana University 2025
Alexander Leonardi
Grad student since 2026
Email: al100
BS, Harvard 2025
Paola Frunzio
Grad student since 2026
Email: frunzio2
BS, Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2026
Xavier Dabrowiecki
Grad student since 2026
Email: ksawery2
BS, DePaul 2026
Undergraduates
Cynthia Nolan
Class of 2027, joined 2024
Email: jmnolan5
Abbie Vaughan-Lee
Class of 2027, joined 2024
Email: abbiev2
Jack Cabay
Class of 2028, joined 2024
Email: cabay2
Technical staff & collaborators
Marcos Frenkel
Code wizard at NCSA
Email: marcosf2
BS, UIUC 2020
Alumni
| Name | Role | Last known whereabouts after our lab |
|---|---|---|
| Hannah Day | Grad student (HEP theory; Templeton TEX fellowship) 2025-2026 | Postdoc at U. Toronto |
| Tushar Mohan | Undergrad 2023-2026 | PhD student at Yale |
| Sofiia Lauten | REU student 2025 | Undergrad at U. Wisconsin-Madison |
| Supriya Mandal | Postdoc 2022-2025 | Postdoc at Neel Institute, Grenoble, France |
| Rocky Daehler | Undergrad 2024-2025 | Software developer |
| Nishna Aerabati | Undergrad 2024-2025 | Undergrad at UIUC |
| Owen Stephenson | Undergrad 2021-2024 | |
| Fabian Schatz | Visiting undergrad 2024 | Student at TU Munich |
| Matthew Steele | Undergrad + gap year 2021-2024 | Grad student at CU Boulder |
| Jeremy Lin | Undergrad 2023-2024 | Undergrad at UIUC |
| Omri Raz | REU student 2023 | Grad student at U. Chicago |
| Zack Xiong | Undergrad 2022-2023 | Grad student at Georgia Tech |
| Shreyaans Jain | Undergrad 2021-2023 | |
| David Ding | Grad student 2020-2022 | Grad student at UIUC (became a theorist) |
| Nick Clarisse | Grad student 2020-2021 | Grad student at UIUC (became a theorist) |
| Ada Matthews | REU student 2021 | |
| Hebah Goderya | REU student 2021 | Undergrad at UT Austin, Grad student at Purdue |
Email addresses end in @illinois.edu.